Milorad Dodik (SNSD) as a member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) on Wednesday blocked the approval of the trade agreement with the United Kingdom (UK) and activated the entity interest on the grounds that the agreement harms BiH.
This is an agreement that has already been signed by four countries in the Western Balkans, and Montenegro is in the final phase of signing. Now, only because of Dodik, BiH is problematizing the negotiation of partnership, cooperation and trade activities with the UK, considering that due to Britain’s exit from the European Union (EU), our country does not have any agreement that will regulate those relations bilaterally.
Trade and general cooperation with the UK have so far been based on the postulates of the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) between the EU and BiH, but after Brexit BiH has no defined trade relations with official London.
The idea for a special bilateral agreement was initiated by the UK which submitted a draft agreement, which is largely based on most of the provisions of the SAA with the EU.
The UK submitted the same text submitted to BiH and all the countries of the Western Balkans. So far, four countries have signed the agreement, including Serbia. The agreement was not signed with BiH and Montenegro, with Montenegro entering the final phase of negotiations.
The UK also informed the EU about these agreements, emphasizing that it would be based on all the postulates contained in the SAA, and the EU had no objections.
But Milorad Dodik sees the remarks or pretends to see them, and he redirected the whole process to the Republika Srpska (RS)parliament. So now the National Assembly of RS (NARS) will discuss this agreement and, at Dodik’s invitation, will probably refuse to sign it. In all this, it should not be ignored that Dodik, on numerous occasions when addressing the public and commenting on the international community, demonizes the UKand presents it as an enemy.
Clearly, Dodik is bothered by the fact that the UK has more active involvement in the Western Balkans and open opposition to its secessionist policies. This includes sanctions imposed by the UK on Dodik, but also on RS President Zeljka Cvijanovic. If we know what the procedure is, then it is clear that BiH will wait a long time to sign a trade agreement with the UK, which is why BiH‘s economy and mostly exporters will suffer.
In 2021, BiH exported goods worth 91 million BAM to the UK. In the same period, BiH imported goods worth 72 million BAM from the UK, Klix.ba writes.
E.Dz.
